From Square One
by xheybails
Summary: Ben is 28 and has been kicked out of office. Twice. Leslie is 18 and already smarter than he ever was.


**Title:** From Square One

**Pairing:** Leslie/Ben

**Timeline:** Modern Day College AU

**Rating:** PG-13

**Word Count:** 4,700

**Summary:** Ben is 28 and has been kicked out of office. Twice. Leslie is 18 and already smarter than he ever was.

**A/N:** I started watching Community last week and after binge-watching the entire series in three days, this is what happened. Very Annie/Jeff inspired.

It all starts when he meets this cute brunette walking into his Intro to Financial Accounting class. She was tall and slender and had deep, chocolate eyes. She was exactly his type.

To be honest, he never even noticed he had a type until his political adviser, Chris, pointed it out to him at some charity event a few years ago.

Sorry, former political adviser. Sort of.

And if Ben is being honest with himself, that's really where it all starts, with Chris.

When he met Chris four years ago, Ben Wyatt was fresh out of college; his diploma hadn't even arrived in the mail yet. Hell, he hadn't even finished packing up his apartment yet.

Ben had no idea what his next move was going to be; he was simply a kid with a Political Science degree who wanted people to listen to him. That is when he met Chris.

Chris Traeger graduated a few years before him and had landed some high profile internship at a political consulting company in Indianapolis. They had never met, but Chris was one of those people that were talked about long after he left the room. Several of his professors had cited Chris as an example of success for the school and how anyone would be lucky to follow the same path.

So when Chris showed up at his front door and made a passionate speech stating that he wanted Ben to run for office, he couldn't think of a single reason why it wouldn't be a good idea.

When Ben was eighteen, there was a stretch of about six months where he felt like he could rule the world. He had just been inaugurated as mayor, his parents were so proud of him that they were getting along for the first time in years, and he was making out with Cindy Eckert every other day behind city hall.

And then it all went to hell.

Ice Town had been such a great idea in theory. He still believed that. The problem is, teenagers are idiots and the next thing he knew, the town was bankrupt, his parents weren't speaking (in hindsight, this was probably a good thing), and Cindy no longer wanted anything to do with him.

He spent the entire summer hiding out in his basement watching Star Wars movies with his little sister (who seemed like only person in the world who never really hated him) until he packed up his things and moved into his dorm room at Northwestern.

Ben majored in Political Science thinking it would help him ease back into the politics game. Despite how badly he screwed up, he still wanted to run for office again one day. It wasn't until two weeks after graduation when Ben was sitting in a meeting with Chris and his collogues that he realized he hadn't really learned anything in college.

If Ben had thought life couldn't get much better at eighteen, he was certain life couldn't get much worse at twenty-eight. And maybe that was comforting in a way. It was all uphill from here.

When he lost the re-election last year, he knew he was in trouble. No one seemed to believe in him anymore, except Chris. But Chris believed in everyone all the time, so really, that wasn't saying much.

Chris had been his go-to when he had been in office. He had been the one to somehow pull off the miracle of getting him elected again so soon after his disastrous stint as mayor, Ben figured he knew everything.

But the problem with this strategy is that Chris said yes to everything. Every idea Ben brought to Chris was _literally_ the most wonderful idea he had ever heard. By the time Ben realized this, however, he was in far too deep to dig himself out.

He made financial mistake after financial mistake and ended up losing the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This is how he ended up as a twenty-eight year old accounting student at Indiana University. Chris told him it was the best way to prove he could be trusted with money ever again.

Ben got six more opinions before he actually believed him.

And this is how he met the pretty brunette.

Ben stumbled into Intro to Financial Accounting a few minutes before it began and sunk into the first seat in his path. It wasn't until he looked up when the professor walked in that he realized the girl sitting next to him was really quite gorgeous.

He snuck glances at her throughout the entire class; catching her eye more than once. When the professor finally dismissed them, Ben shot her his most winning smile; the same one Chris coached him on for hours and insists is the reason Ben got elected.

"Hi, I'm Ben."

She extended her hand toward him, gently shaking it, "Jessica."

The two chatted for the next few minutes as they walked down the hall together toward her next class and before they had even exchanged so much as their last names, Ben was smitten.

"You know, if you wanted, we could get together sometime. Have a study group or something."

Jessica nodded, grinning, and had just opened her mouth to reply when they were both startled by a voice behind them.

"Did you say study group?"

A short blonde in a slightly-faded red IU t-shirt looked up at them with eager eyes, "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, it's just, I noticed you guys were in my accounting class and numbers really aren't my thing, so…"

Jessica's grin remained in tact, not faltering for even a second, "Oh, yes, you should totally join us!"

"Um, yeah…totally."

"Great! Did you guys want to meet after class on Thursday? Can you believe there's already going to be a quiz next week? I already feel so behind and it's just the first day!"

Ben frowned at the floor. Short Blonde was really throwing off his game here. He didn't know if he was more annoyed by her presence or that Jessica didn't even seem to care that studying was the last thing he had wanted to do with her.

The two were exchanging details at a rapid pace and before he knew it, he had plans to meet them both at the student union Thursday evening.

Jessica didn't show up for class on Thursday. Short Blonde had for some reason decided she needed to sit next to him and Ben had therefore decided he needed to ignore her.

He almost didn't even go to the study group session. Would Jessica even be there after she ditched class this morning?

Ben decided he would risk it; if this were his only chance to see her until next week, he had to take it.

Even though the study room on the second floor wasn't difficult to find, Ben walked in a full five minutes after they had agreed to meet and was shocked when he found not Jessica and Short Blonde sitting at the large table, but six faces he had never noticed were even in their class.

"Oh, good! I was worried you wouldn't make it. You know, it's 7:05."

"I'm aware," Ben grumbled as he dropped his book onto the table. "Where's Jessica?"

"She didn't tell you? She dropped the class when she got into some other class she'd been on the waitlist for."

Ben rolled his eyes, "Awesome."

Short Blonde cleared her throat.

"I invited some other people from our class. This is Tom, and that's Jean-Ralphio," she gestured to the two guys on her right.

"Then there's Donna," she continued pointing around the circle, "And April, and that's April's friend Orin."

Ben looked around the circle wondering how much of an ass it would make him if he just walked out now and tried to decide if he cared enough to find out.

"None of us are actually accounting majors, so we will probably need all the help we can get. What about you?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Accounting major. Getting my masters, actually."

"Why are you in an introductory accounting class if you're getting your masters?"

"Why are you in an introductory accounting class if you're not an accounting major?"

He caught Short Blonde's eye (he should really learn her name at some point) and actually felt a little bad. Not a lot or anything, but it wasn't her fault this evening wasn't going at all as he had anticipated.

Although, it kind of was.

Ben sighed, "I got my bachelors in Political Science so I have to take a few intro classes as prerequisites."

"Oh," she replied softly, "I want to work in government one day. I just figured it would come in handy."

"I mostly registered cause I heard this hot chick talking about it and I wanted to hit that," said Jean-Ralphio. Tom nodded and immediately raised his hand and the two did some weird handshake Ben couldn't begin to understand.

"My parents forced me to take this class because they say I spend my money in a 'dangerous and irresponsible' way," Donna explained, complete with air quotes and an eye roll. "If I don't pass it, they'll cut me off and I won't be able to afford to keep my baby."

Everyone's jaw dropped collectively and Ben was pretty sure Short Blonde's eyes might pop out of her head.

"I meant my Mercedes! Geez, I'm a grown woman with a good head on her shoulders. Don't worry about me."

"I want to destroy the entire world," April began with a blank look on her face, "And Orin is here because I made him come with me. He doesn't need help, though. He's a genius."

Ben raised an eyebrow as Leslie cleared her throat.

"Well, now that we got that settled, should we get started?"

It took Ben three weeks to learn that Short Blonde's name was Leslie. It only took him three minutes to learn that she had been right; numbers really weren't her thing.

Luckily for all of them, Ben was actually pretty good with numbers, despite how terrible he had been with money in the past. Everything they learned in class made complete sense to him and he couldn't help but wonder how much better off he might be right now if he had actually learned this stuff ten years ago.

He wasn't sure why he kept going to the study group, but for some strange reason, he almost felt like he owed it to the rest of them to be there. Donna and April seemed to grasp the concepts well enough to pass, which was apparently all they cared about, and Ben spent most of the hour avoiding Orin's gaze.

That guy was just creepy.

Tom and Jean-Ralphio were lost causes. They clearly knew nothing about managing money and didn't seem to have much interest in learning.

And then there was Leslie. Nothing in the class came easy to her, but not for lack of effort. She had showed up to the first study session with a color-coded binder and ten pages of notes even though they had only had two classes so far and they didn't even learn anything the first day.

As the weeks went on, she got more and more comfortable with the material and Ben found he had to explain less to her every week. It was kind of amazing, actually, how much she had improved.

Though really, Ben couldn't be all that surprised. She never stopped working. Ben wasn't even sure she slept. Like, ever.

She was like the energizer bunny of college students.

Before their first test, Leslie had come armed with study guides for all of them and they were so comprehensive, Ben was sure it had taken her days to finish them.

But that was just Leslie Knope. She worked harder than anyone he'd ever met. Actually, in general, she just did everything with a little more passion than everyone else.

He was pretty sure if she'd been elected mayor at 18, she wouldn't have run the town into the ground.

Ben couldn't deny that he really admired that about her.

The week of midterms Leslie was driving him crazy. Not in the usual bug him every Thursday after class to see if he was coming to the study group even though he had yet to miss one kind of way. No, this time she was driving him crazy in a throw his phone out the window and pretend he doesn't exist kind of way.

He knew she was nervous about their test; it was 30% of their grade and would be hard to come back from if she failed it. But this was Leslie. It may not come to her naturally, but she knew the material and Ben knew she would pass the exam easily. But no matter how many times he told her this, she just wouldn't believe him.

Which is why he was currently ignoring her eighth phone call in the past five hours.

He saw her name appear on his caller id once more and rolled his eyes, returning to his comic book. A few seconds later, he jumped at a sudden knock on his door.

Ben didn't know if he was more surprised or frustrated when he saw Leslie on the other side of the door. He didn't even know she knew where he lived.

"What are you doing here?"

She blew past him, not waiting for an invitation inside. "You weren't answering my calls."

"Because you're freaking out for no reason."

"It could have been an emergency, Ben! What if I was dying or, or, cornered by a raccoon or…" she trailed off when she slammed her books on his coffee table, noting the abandoned Batman comic on the couch, open and clearly in the process of being read. "You're ignoring my calls so you could read a comic book?"

Her face scrunched up in anger. Not the kind of angry when she came across an accounting problem she couldn't quite figure out. No, this was real anger.

"Ben, I needed you and you're reading a freaking _comic book_?"

"It's Saturday, I can read a comic book if I want to read a comic book, Leslie! I've already told you a million times that you're more than ready for this test, I don't know what else you want from me."

"I want you to help me study!"

"I did help you study! I helped you on Thursday, and yesterday, oh, and even Tuesday, after class. I've answered countless texts, helping you study. All I wanted was an afternoon to myself."

"Well, sorry I'm such a burden to you, _Benjamin_."

"God, Leslie, I didn't…I didn't even want to do this! I did not sign up for you bugging me every ten seconds to remind you that you're capable of passing this test! All I wanted was to sleep with Jessica and now I'm standing here, _in my own house_, being yelled at for how I spend my free time!"

Leslie's jaw dropped at his confession and her eyes hardened even more than they already had been. "You…what?"

"I…I…I did not mean to say that."

"Yeah, well, you did. I'm glad I know how you really feel now."

Before he could even react, she stomped back into the hall and slammed the door behind her. Ben let out a deep sigh and fell back onto the couch.

Well, that went wonderfully.

On Tuesday, Ben got to class early for the first time all semester. He wasn't surprised to find Leslie already in her seat, piles of notes on her desk.

"Hey," he said softly.

"I really don't have time to talk to you right now, Ben."

"Leslie, listen, I'm sorry I-"

"Seriously, Ben, it's fine. No big deal. Just leave it alone and let me study."

Her tone suggested that it was anything but fine, but the last thing he wanted to do was upset her further, so he let it go.

It had been a surprisingly long two days without any interaction with Leslie. Ben hadn't realized how much he actually talked to Leslie until her silence. Not just about class, but he began to notice just how many times he picked up his phone to text her Sunday while he was watching the History Channel.

They were airing documentaries all day long and Ben was certain Leslie would be watching. Maybe, if he hadn't blown up at her yesterday, she might have even come over and they could have watched them together. And then he could have made them dinner, and then who knows what would have happened.

That was the other thing Ben learned over the weekend. Whatever delusions he had talked himself into about not having feelings for Leslie had been shattered. There was no question now, after the way he'd been feeling for the last 48 hours.

He was totally into her and he had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

Besides, she seemed to kind of hate him now, so he had that obstacle to overcome before worrying about anything else.

After class, Ben sat down on the front steps of the building and waited for Leslie to finish her test. Ten minutes later, Leslie walked out the front doors of the building, took one look at him, and began walking away.

Immediately, Ben jumped up to catch up with her. "Leslie! Leslie, wait!"

"Seriously, Ben, it's fine. I get it. You have better things to do and you never wanted to help me anyway. You're officially released from duty. I won't bug you about studying anymore."

Ben let out a long sigh. "I was a jerk the other day. I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said. You're not a burden and I do want to help you."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm so sorry about the other day. Seriously. Let me make it up to you. You want to get a beer?"

"Ben, I'm eighteen. Also, it's like 10:30 in the morning."

Ben laughed and rubbed his palms on his jeans nervously. "Right. Well, how about a coffee?"

Leslie smiled. "Coffee sounds good."

Once Ben had dealt with the Leslie-Hates-Me situation, it was time to move onto Phase 2. Now that he had come to accept his feelings for Leslie, he really only had two options.

1. Pretend he didn't have feelings for her and keep being her friend like nothing has changed.

2. Sweep her off her feet.

The biggest problem with either of these plans is that Ben had absolutely no idea if she might feel the same way. Sometimes she looked at him like maybe she might feel something, but as soon as he noticed it, it would be gone, so quickly he was afraid he might be imagining it.

When they left the study group that Thursday, the first snow of the season was beginning to fall. None of them were prepared for the weather and the others scattered quickly, trying to get home. Leslie, however, lingered, so Ben lingered too.

"I love the first snow of the year," she whispered. "Everything getting covered in white, I can order hot chocolate without the barista looking at me funny; scarves, mittens, hats. I mean, I love summer, but there is just something magical about watching the snow fall around you."

She looked up at him with a smile and rosy cheeks, but Ben wasn't sure if that was from embarrassment or the cold. Either way, he smiled back.

"Come on," Ben said with a jerk of his head in the direction of her dorm, "I'll walk you home."

Ben spent more time watching Leslie, listening to her talk about the snow on the way home than he did on where he was going. It's a small miracle he didn't walk into a lamppost.

One thing was clear, though; he wasn't just _into _Leslie, he was smitten with her.

When he realized he would rather stand here in the snow, freezing his ass off and talking to Leslie, than do just about anything else without Leslie, the solution was simple.

He was going to woo Leslie Knope.

He started off simple. He brought her coffee to their study sessions every week, and to class a few times. He began answering her texts immediately, rather than letting them sit for a while first. He called her anytime he found something on television he thought she might find interesting.

He even sent her flowers once.

She never acted any different toward him, though. She always smiled sweetly when he handed her a coffee and he got a particularly nice voicemail after the flowers. But things didn't seem to be progressing fast enough and Ben knew he needed to bring out the big guns.

He spent hours racking his brain for a way to show her just how interested he was. And then it hit him.

Ben had been friends with Leslie long enough to know that the way to her heart was through her stomach, so he raced out of his apartment and didn't come back until he was armed with a waffle maker, his grandmother's recipe, and all the ingredients he needed.

He would need a little practice before his creations were up to Leslie Knope standards, so he got used to eating waffles every evening for dinner; a small sacrifice in the name of the girl he likes.

Finals week was rapidly approaching and Leslie had them all on a very tight study schedule. She was determined to walk away with an A+, and not only that, she wanted everyone in the group to pass, even Tom and Jean-Ralphio.

Their study sessions increased from once a week to three times a week and last weekend, Ben had received 13 emails, 8 text messages, and 12 phone calls from Leslie, all requesting help with some element of their study guide for the final.

The day before the test, Ben walked into the study room and immediately came to a halt.

"Where's Leslie?"

Donna pointed to a small table in the corner of the room where Leslie was slumped over the table in an oversized hoodie, her hair in a messy ball on the top of her head, binders covering the entire space. "Quarantine."

Ben's eyebrows raised, "Um, what?"

Tom sent a glare in Leslie's direction, "She's sick and I cannot be around that right now. Do you know how many dope parties there's gonna be after finals this weekend?"

Ben dropped his stuff on the table in front of him and walked over to Leslie, despite the shrieks of his friends warning him to stop.

"Hey, Les? How are you feeling?"

"Oh, Ben! I'm fine. I'm totally fine. Yep. 100% fine…I'm fine."

"Right," Ben pressed his hand to her forehead, "Good lord, you're burning up."

"You're burning up."

"Leslie, you need to see a doctor, like right now. Let me take you."

Ben grasped her bicep and attempted to pull her up before she yanked her arm away in protest.

"No! Ben, I cannot be sick right now. I have so much work to do. I'll just work through it. It'll be fine. I've done it before. I'll go to the doctor next week."

It took another ten minutes and the promise of waffles with extra whipped cream before Leslie finally agreed to leave the room, and every step of the way was a fight to the death.

Ben knew she wanted to do well on her finals, but this was a little extreme, even for Leslie.

The night took a turn for the worse when Leslie was admitted to the hospital for dehydration and an extremely high fever. It was an experience Ben would put on par with fighting with a small child about their bedtime.

That didn't stop him from spending the night slumped in the chair next to her bed.

Just in case she needed something, of course.

The next morning, Ben was jerked awake by the alarm on his phone. He turned it off without opening his eyes, then sighed and rubbed his neck.

Maybe sleeping in an uncomfortable chair all night wasn't his best plan.

He opened his eyes slowly, rubbing the sleep from them and stretching his arms above his head. As he moved his eyes to the bed to check on Leslie, he stopped, mid-stretch.

She was gone.

She couldn't make anything easy on him, could she? He immediately knew where he would find her and he jumped up, racing across campus to their accounting class.

Sure enough, seated in her usual seat was Leslie, her usual IU sweatshirt paired with mismatched sweatpants and her messy blonde curls were falling from the low bun she'd hastily constructed.

He dropped into the seat next to her. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking the test, Benjamin. Obviously."

"But you're supposed to be in the hospital! Leslie, you know you could have made up the test later. You still have a fever."

Her face scrunched up into a scowl and she growled at him. Like, actually _growled._

"And I'll still be alive in an hour after this test and I'll even let you drive me back yourself if you're so concerned with my health. But right now, I'm taking this test."

Ben sighed, realizing he was fighting a losing battle. Even he couldn't talk Leslie Knope out of doing something once she'd set her mind to it.

He kept sneaking glances at her throughout the hour, convinced she would pass out or something. When they had both finished, he held her to her word and drove her back to the hospital, despite the fact that she was still protesting heavily.

"I still can't believe you managed to get the highest grade in the class with a fever of 104. I mean, you even did better than me."

Ben sat on the bench next to Leslie, rested his arm on the bench behind her, and dropped his bag next to them. He watched Leslie watch two guys starting a snowball fight in the distance and couldn't bite back his small grin.

"Don't sound so surprised," Leslie frowned. "I'm pretty awesome."

Ben chuckled, "Yeah, you kind of are."

"So you're not still mad at me for ruining your study group, then? I did keep you from getting laid, and all," Leslie smirked.

"You're forgiven. It turned out to be not so bad. Besides, I ran into Jessica at the bar one night and she didn't even remember me. Actually, she was kind of a bitch. So maybe I should be thanking you."

Leslie smiled and lightly knocked into his side with her shoulder before leaning back against the bench once more, slightly closer than she had been. Maddeningly close, actually. About as close as she could possibly be without actually touching him.

Ben took the opportunity to drop his hand to her shoulder and his smile grew when she leaned into him and his side finally came into contact with hers. Despite the freezing temperatures and cloudy skies, everywhere she touched him felt like his skin had been set on fire.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Leslie spoke up again.

"You know, you still owe me those waffles."

"That I do. And what better way to celebrate a couple of A-pluses than a round of waffles?" Ben asked. He stood and slung his bag over his shoulder, than reached for her hand. "Milady?"

Leslie grinned and threaded their fingers together and he led her in the direction of his apartment.

All of those test waffles were worth it when Leslie took one bite and let out a small moan. She mumbled something about them being the best waffles outside of Pawnee and he grinned at the compliment.

And if a few hours later he made her moan for a completely different reason while they were cuddled together on the couch?

Well, let's just say he was grinning about that, too.


End file.
